Austrian OMV, Russian Gazprom Energy Companies May Agree on Asset Swap

Austria's largest oil and gas company, OMV AG, and Russia’s energy company Gazprom may carry out an asset swap if OMV participates in the Urengoy oil, gas and condensate field development project, the Austrian Kurier newspaper reported Thursday.

VIENNA (Sputnik) — According to Kurier, contractual partners want to analyze the participation of OMV in the development Russian oil and gas fields in Urengoy, and will consider a possible asset swap in the case of the project’s implementation.

In June, Manfred Leitner, a member of Executive Board at OMV, and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding.

The memorandum also puts forward plans to construct two additional strings to the already-existing Nord Stream pipeline.

The Nord Stream pipeline has been operational since 2011, with annual gas throughput now averaging 55 billion cubic meters.

Nord Stream is an offshore natural gas pipeline from Vyborg in the Russian Federation to Greifswald in Germany.